University of Texas asks Fifth Circuit to unblock campus speech law

University of Texas system officials asked the Fifth Circuit Tuesday to lift an injunction blocking enforcement of parts of the Campus Protection Act, a law passed after pro-Palestinian campus protests that requires universities to ban expressive activity between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. and during the final two weeks of each term. A lower court found the restrictions likely violate the First Amendment after student groups at UT Austin and UT Dallas sued.

Texas argued the law regulates universities, not students directly, so plaintiffs should have challenged individual campus policies instead of the statute itself, a position Judge Andrew Oldham appeared sympathetic to. Plaintiffs' attorney countered that the law uses mandatory language forcing specific restrictions, citing concrete effects like a student newspaper reporter barred from covering breaking news after 10 p.m. and a Christian student group blocked from hosting evening ministers or morning prayer meetings during finals period.

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